less $$? more whuffie!
how social capital is the key to building your
business...even in tough economic times

the theme of this
conference is

the power of less

#awesome

cause I’ve always done
it that way

$1.2mm

competing against
budgets >$100mm

became the #2
bestseller

[and, consequently,
made alot more $$]

the $$ driven
campaigns focused on

we focused on

$0

netted >1MM uploads

24 hrs

??

“
Half the money I spend on
”
advertising is wasted; the
trouble is I don't know which half.
John Wanamaker

when you use

you can’t be quite sure
who will receive your
message like

but when you

you know exactly where
you stand

which is why

when it comes to
marketing

whuffie is wiser

lemme explain

web 2.0

Facebook = >180Million users
Blogs = >115Million+ (+China’s 75M)
MySpace = >110Million users
Orkut = >75Million users
Twitter = >15 Million

Twitter = >24,000 followers (>1300 followed)
Facebook = >2,500 friends
Flickr = >1,200 friends
l’il ole me

scary

newsflash:
you can’t shut the
internets down

#FAIL

but I was actually really
curious about this...

why were some
companies being
received with

while others were
being greeted with

?

while I was pondering
this I picked up a book
by

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/437288525/

[cory doctorow]

[boing boing]

instead of $$

whuffie

=

social capital

=

reputation

connections
(both strong and weak)

influence

access to resources/
talent/more
connections

favors added up
(reciprocity)

publicly known
accomplishments

levels of trust

etc

in cory’s future

when you

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notic/86343146/

whuffie

score

high score

=

good reputation

trustworthy

listen to their advice

you can also buy stuff
with your whuffie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brraveheart/2072543750/

but something
sounded familiar to me

it isn’t futuristic nor is
it fictional

it’s here and now

it’s how we relate to
one another

online communities

ping!

Friended!

ping!
hmmm...don’t know him well enough to transfer
trust...

A. ask for more info
B. ignore for now

so if

a quick

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notic/86343146/

would tell me

he’s not interested in
being my friend

he wants value from
me

without providing me
any value

[reciprocity]

if you want to become
an influencer

someone who is
whuffie rich

whose ideas spread

who is well-loved

you need to

credibility

it’s really as simple as
that

but there’s a catch

didn’t happen overnight

it required a different
perspective

alot of time and
attention

it won’t cost you very
much $$

and you’ll see results in
real time

it involves

5 key components to
raising whuffie

#1.
turn that bullhorn around

how marketing looked before
the internet

then came the competition

got louder

and louder

led to

main characteristic

impersonal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/179390300/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tin-g/90143310/

which is why

people we trust

if you are still

you are totally missing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/133146861/

if you want to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klapow/39693385/

sounds easy, but it isn’t

focus on individuals

understand the needs of a
community

that’s totally challenging

but if you don’t listen...and then
respond...the silence will

smack down your whuffie

just ask Dell computer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrkbeta/3283932325/

“
DELL SUCKS. DELL LIES. Put
that in your Google and
”
smoke it Dell!
Jeff Jarvis

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/464177597/

Dell turning the bullhorn
around
1. Direct2Dell - blog where people could start
talking to Dell about their experiences.
2. Instantly responding to fiascos (like the exploding
laptop)
3. CES - blogger lounge with Michael Dell
4. Dell Idea Storm
5. Delivering on the ideas generated in the tool
6. rinse. repeat.

DELL turned their whuffie
deficit into a whuffie making
machine, stopping their decline
in sales and stopped their bad
press.

but if you want to really
become

#2.
become part of the
community you serve

getting out

the question is

figure out

who is it that you serve?

what problem are you solving?

for whom?

knowing that makes it easier

then join them!

not as market research

not as a voyeur

not to sell anyone anything

if you join a community with
the wrong intentions

authenticity matters

what you need to figure out is

learn from that

integrate it into what you are
offering

lastly figure out

why would they give a damn?

seemingly infinite choice

what is the difference between

you need to be remarkable

because then

some people may even give a
damn.

and how does one achieve
remarkability?

#3.
create amazing customer
experiences

when I say amazing

I mean experiences that lead
to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lugolounge/6780004/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teointarifa/490408075/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60852569@N00/242746787/

and then you will

this doesn’t need to be
complicated

10 things you can do to create
amazing experiences

1. The Dazzle is in the Details.

moleskine
http://flickr.com/photos/confusedvision/226129765/

1. The Dazzle is in the Details.
2. Go Above and Beyond.

TED conference
http://flickr.com/photos/stewart/433935679/

1. The Dazzle is in the Details.
2. Go Above and Beyond.
3. Appeal to Emotion.

vosges
http://flickr.com/photos/quintanaroo/1516782327/

1. The Dazzle is in the Details.
2. Go Above and Beyond.
3. Appeal to Emotion.
4. Inject Fun into the Experience.

flickr
http://flickr.com/photos/joshb/1408947023/

1. The Dazzle is in the Details.
2. Go Above and Beyond.
3. Appeal to Emotion.
4. Inject Fun into the Experience.
5. Make Something Mundane Fashionable.

method home products
http://flickr.com/photos/schweb/2890697924/

6. Let People Personalize.

moo cards
http://flickr.com/photos/schweb/2890697924/

6. Let People Personalize.
7. Be Experimental.

threadless

6. Let People Personalize.
7. Be Experimental.
8. Simplify.

37 signals

6. Let People Personalize.
7. Be Experimental.
8. Simplify.
9. Make Happiness Your Business Model:
increase autonomy, competence and
relatedness.

Zappos.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/2476324694/

6. Let People Personalize.
7. Be Experimental.
8. Simplify.
9. Make Happiness Your Business Model:
increase autonomy, competence and
relatedness.
10.Be a Social Catalyst.

community.intuit.com

#4.
embrace the chaos

controlling the message?

heh

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseacre/153532248/

I know...it’s hard to
embrace the chaos...

long history

of fear

the fear mongers
• corporate espionage
• competition
• security
• litigation
• bad-mouthers
• mistrust

it’s on their shoulders
• Legal
• Public Relations/Corporate
Communications
• IT

understand the need
for security

but balance it with the
need for openness

there are many benefits
to openness and
transparency

benefits of embracing the
chaos
• you’ll be better prepared for the unexpected
• you’ll join in the conversation that is already
happening and be welcomed for this move
• it will bring in the opportunity for collaboration
• it will make your ideas stronger
• it will create supporters you didn’t know you
had

in the old days, you had
one chance to get the
message just right...

today, you have multiple
conversations and iterations to
build that message with your
customers and audience.

Funny how we create our own rat
traps in our success. Once we're
'there' we can no longer do the stuff
that made us successful in the 1st
place.

...or can we?

we’re just one more step away
from

here is some food for thought

while money is part of the

market economy

whuffie is part of the

it acts kind of opposite

the more you give away, the
more whuffie you gain

whuffie is only valuable when it
circulates

and as it circulates, it

but we still need to make $$
to pay the rent

so the question is...

what can you give away that
won’t leave you broke?

#5.
find your higher purpose.

born out of passion?

serving a need?

fighting the good fight?

maybe that stuff doesn’t
interest you

maybe you just want to

does it mean that you will be
whuffie poor?

nah.

you just have to find a way to
give back to the community

the more you give, the more
that comes back

5 gifts to give that won’t leave
you broke

“nerd values”
do well by doing good

“...compared check-writing and
volunteering to cutting the leaves and
branches off a tree, where the heart of the
business and its ability to impact the world
positively is the tree itself.”
Gary Hirshberg, CEO, Stonyfield Farms

think customer-centrically

not customer-centric
• •
You do everything you can to keep You have a long list of customer
your customers on your website. relations policies. Any exception to
those policies has to go up the chain
of command for approval.
• You measure number of visitors and
time spent on your website as
•
whether you are successful. You need to create multiple
instructional videos so that your
customers will understand how to
• When budgets get tightened, you
use your product.
make cutbacks in areas like
customer service, marketing,
•
support staff and design. You demand social media strategies
that win over the ‘influencers’ to blog
or tweet about your product.
• You are bothered by a customer
describing your product in their own
words that doesn’t match your
brand.

customer-centric
• •
You send customers to other Your customers are doing things
websites. with your product you never
dreamed and are posting videos.
• You measure how many people refer
•
their friends to you as success. Influencers are adding you as friends
on social networks.
• You let people feed in their content
•
from other sites easily. You work with your competitors
towards better customer
experiences for all.
• When budgets get tightened, you
tighten operational costs.
• You know you compete for your
customers’ attention with everyone.
• Your only customer service policy is
to do right by the customer.

help others go further

spread love

akoha.com

value something bigger

• do well by doing good
• think customer-centrically
• help others go further
• spread love
• value something bigger

whuffie

will grow over time

so combine all of the

• turn the bullhorn around
• become part of the community you serve
• create amazing experiences
• embrace the chaos
• find your higher purpose

you will raise whuffie

whuffie rich

=

better word of mouth

repeat sales

customer loyalty

=

big, fat increase to your
bottom line

which will help you buy stuff

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brraveheart/2072543750/

which is why whuffie is the
wiser way to go in any
economy.

end.

In stores
April 21!
pre-order
today!
http://thewhuffiefactor.com

licensing:
http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue

about those rockin’ images:
• Many are from iStockphoto.com (totally cool site)
• except as marked on the photo...
• a screenshot of my friendwheel: http://
apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• and the logos & screengrabs I stole from all of the
respective sites...

some references
• Akoha.com http://www.akoha.com
• Microformats: http://www.microformats.org
• OpenID: http://www.openid.net
• Creative Commons: http://www.creativecommons.org
• BarCamp: http://barcamp.org
• Coworking: http://coworking.info
• Ma.gnolia: http://ma.gnolia.com
• Friend Wheel: http://apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• Great internet stats: http://pewinternet.org
• Whuffie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie

Tara missrogue Hunt
marketing lead, Intuit Partner Platform
horsepigcow@gmail.com
415.694.1951
twitter: missrogue
skype: tarahunt747
www.horsepigcow.com